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Protesters, LAPD clash as chief defends shooting

I lived in LA for many years. LAPD has a Robocop aura of menace that you don’t just find elsewhere, not even in Chicago or NYC. Yes, the immigrant supposedly had a switchblade and events were out of control. But golly, this type of thing just seems to happen more in LA than elsewhere.

Part of the problem stems from a decision in the 1950’s to use more technology and less police officers. This was done for the best of reasons and was the result of uncovering massive corruption. So LAPD took police officers off the beat and replaced them with helicopters and other monitoring technology. Unlike, say New York City, LAPD has few if any officers that walk an area. It also has the lowest per capita ratio of police officers to citizens of any major city. All of this has had the effect of isolating the police from the community and after 50 years, there’s now plenty of mutual mistrust.

The Swami Bob prediction: The official investigation will exonerate the officers. The dead man’s heirs will get a large cash settlement anyway. Liberals will howl about brutality. Conservatives will defend the police. An independent commission will recommend major reforms within LAPD so regrettable incidents like this don’t happen again. And nothing will change. Because it never does.

2 Responses to Protesters, LAPD clash as chief defends shooting

The fact that he had a weapon justifies using similar force in law. But one has to wonder, wasn’t there an alternative? Couldn’t they have shot him in say, the leg? Drunk or no, bullets hurt. It may have been enough to get him to stop and get things under control…